Florida ed department says it will cooperate with federal immigration enforcement
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The Florida Department of Education plans to cooperate with the Trump administration's new directive to allow immigration enforcement within schools.
Why it matters: The state's cooperation could discourage undocumented parents from sending their children to school.
Catch up quick: President Trump promised an aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, and the latest directive allows immigration officials to raid schools and churches, previously deemed off-limits.
- "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," DHS announced this week.
Driving the news: Sydney Booker, communications director for the state education department, said, "Florida schools will cooperate with all law enforcement working to enforce the nation's laws on illegal immigration."
- Booker did not answer questions about what that cooperation would look like in practical terms.
- Ahead of next week's special session, Gov. Ron DeSantis urged the legislature to require all law enforcement agencies in the state to assist in enforcing federal immigration law.
The school districts for Hillsborough and Pinellas counties did not respond when asked by Axios how they'd respond if federal immigration officers arrive on campuses.
- Orange County Public Schools said in a memo that administrators can't prevent immigration officers from showing up to interrogate or arrest students, per the Orlando Sentinel.
- As of last year, Hillsborough County had around 16,000 immigrant students, most from Cuba, Venezuela and Honduras.
Threat level: Recent migrants from Cuba and Venezuela who were granted temporary stays by the Biden administration may face rapid deportation under Trump, the Miami Herald reported this week.
- Also admitted under Biden's humanitarian parole program, and now at risk of deportation, are migrants from Nicaragua and Haiti.
The big picture: More than one in five Florida residents are foreign-born, and about 10% of U.S.-born residents live with at least one immigrant parent, per the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy think tank.
- Florida has the third-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the nation.